Pictures: 11 of the Best Cruise Ship Towel Animals

What's secretly handcrafted each night in your cabin by a skilled artisan and looks like a monkey wearing your sunglasses one day, a manta ray holding the TV remote another and an angry spider eating pillow chocolates the next?

If you guessed "towel animals," you've been on a cruise before -- or have at least spent a lot of time here on Cruise Critic.

Towel animals, left behind by room stewards during turndown service, are one of cruise travel's longest-standing traditions. (The towel dodo bird reportedly made an appearance on Titanic.) And it's clear that cruisers have a profound love affair with these creatures.